dry nurse
/ˈdraɪˌnɜrs/
noun
- A woman who takes care of another person's child but does not breastfeed it (as opposed to a wet nurse).
- In the 19th century, wealthy families often hired a dry-nurse for their infants.
- She worked as a dry-nurse for the nobleman's children.
- The dry-nurse looked after the baby while the mother recovered.
Antonyms
verb
- To take care of a child without breastfeeding; also used figuratively to mean to look after someone in an overly protective or fussy way.
- The nanny would dry-nurse the toddler during the day.
- He didn't want his parents to dry-nurse him through college.
- She felt her older sister was trying to dry-nurse her through every problem.